by Doug Crowell and Kel Hancock - Blockhouse Investigations
This article is just to quickly relate an observation made from perusing the Parish Registers of Nova Scotia. A link to these archives was recently shared with the Oak Island Facebook Community by member Diana Young Gregory. This an excellent digital resource hosted online by Canadiana.org, which you can access by clicking here. You can find all the familiar family names listed within this register of births, marriages, and deaths, which have had a connection to Oak Island, such as Smith, McInnis, Vaughan, Ball, and others, from the earliest days of British settlement. Thanks for sharing it with us Diana!
This article is just to quickly relate an observation made from perusing the Parish Registers of Nova Scotia. A link to these archives was recently shared with the Oak Island Facebook Community by member Diana Young Gregory. This an excellent digital resource hosted online by Canadiana.org, which you can access by clicking here. You can find all the familiar family names listed within this register of births, marriages, and deaths, which have had a connection to Oak Island, such as Smith, McInnis, Vaughan, Ball, and others, from the earliest days of British settlement. Thanks for sharing it with us Diana!
One family name was unfamiliar to me, as I had never heard of it before, and I have been living in Nova Scotia all my life. Templeman is the surname I took note of while scrolling through the pages of the register. I did a quick phone directory search and could not find any Templemans currently listed in Nova Scotia, but they were here, living in Chester, near Oak Island, as early as 1787. Samuel Templeman was born in Chester, to Thomas and Mary Templeman, on March 21st, 1787.
Source: http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c3027/6?r=0&s=5
The Templeman name caught my interest, of course, because of the various theories that involve purported Templar activities on Oak Island in the dim past. Could the Templeman surname be connected to the Knights Templar? Surprisingly yes. Check out this excerpt from The Internet Surname Database:
This name is occupational in origin and was given to one who was employed at, or who lived in one of the houses (temples) maintained by the Crusading order, the Knights Templar - so called because of their claimed association with the site of the old temple in Jerusalem. The surname was particularly associated with Cambridgeshire where the Templars had manors at Isleham and Duxford. Alternate forms of the name were 'serviens Templariorum' (1277) and 'de Templo' (1248)... The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Templeman, which was dated 1240, in the Fine Court Rolls of Yorkshire, during the reign of King Henry 111, known as the Frenchman 1216 - 1272. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.
Read more: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Templeman
Now we are not suggesting that this is evidence of Templar activity in Chester, or on Oak Island. It is simply one of those amusing and interesting connections that sometimes occur when researching a topic, and we thought we would share it with you, along with the superb genealogical resource brought to our attention by Diana.
Though someone really interested in Templar research may want to backtrack this family for their own interests.
Goodnight from The Blockhouse!
Though someone really interested in Templar research may want to backtrack this family for their own interests.
Goodnight from The Blockhouse!